It is no secret that the use of coal is a wildly debated topic and the ways that burning it for power affects our environment is known by many. Despite this, the fossil fuel has been used for hundreds of years in the UK alone, particularly after the industrial revolution. Although our sources and coal mines will leave us with over 200 years’ worth of the material, there has been a lot of speculation on the different ways that we can help to reduce emissions and in this blog, the team here at Pearson Fuels are going to go over a few of them…

Fuel Switching

Although it isn’t a widely used process as of yet, the governments have been looking into using other types of fuel as a means to generate the power we require and since our supply of coal is non-renewable, the need for alternatives increases every single year. Other types of fuels we can use in order to reduce the emissions of coal that are releases into our atmosphere include natural gas. These, however, require coal boilers to undergo certain modifications in order for them to operate on natural gas rather than coal.

Improving Efficiency

We can also work to improve how well our coal plants work in order to ensure that fewer carbon dioxide outputs are released without sacrificing the output of power we receive. We can do this in many different ways, such as rebuilding steam turbines and electric generators, improve their controls and upgrading the actual coal quality itself by reducing the ash content so that we less heat would be lost within the ash.

Carbon Capture

By configuring coal plants with certain advanced technology, we can actually capture the carbon dioxide that is let off as a by-product before it reaches the atmosphere. This is known as post-combustion capture. It involves using chilled ammonia or firing the coal boilers with pure oxygen instead of air to make the process of capture carbon dioxide cheaper. Although neither of these have been implemented commercially, research suggests they could be very beneficial in the race to reduce coal emissions.

Although there is nothing wrong with using coal in small amounts in order to heat a fire, it is our responsibility to ensure that we are doing everything we can to protect and preserve our planet as the current generation on earth. After all, implementing the measures above is the first step in the bid to reduce global warming and other problems. For more information, get in contact with the best coal merchants around today!